Sitting in my favorite coffee shop, and in walks one of those “extra important people”…by that I mean someone who comes in the coffee shop either talking loudly to other coffee house guests, or someone who comes in talking loudly on their cell phones.

He is talking loudly on his cell phone.

He, along with so many others, is the reason that I LOVE ear buds and the peace I get simply from plugging them into my ears.

I was actually wrapping up some work that I was completing, and completely forget to include another item on my agenda. In walks “extra important”. Not only talking loudly, but wearing the loudest cologne EVER CREATED. And where does he sit? At a table directly in front of me, and positioned himself to face me as well. So I’m catching it ALL. I QUICKLY grabbed my earbuds back out of my purse, slid them in my ears, and turned on iTunes. I have completed tuned him out…unfortunately, earbuds don’t work on bogus cologne.

At any rate, one of my biggest pet peeves is someone who speaks EXTREMELY loud, and for what seems like no other reason than to let someone know “he look at me, I’m here”. Sir, please have a nice seat because I can’t with you today.

Now…coffee shops aren’t “libraries”, and I’m fully aware that people will talk w friends/business partners/have phone conversations. But to be “extra important” is really…well…whack. There actually is a coffee shop protocol to follow, and the loud conversations and loud cologne aren’t included.

“Extra Important” has left the building. I can now remove my earbuds (if I choose), and work in peace.

Moral of the Story: just be respectful of your neighbors in general. Some people naturally talk loud…but the same people who naturally talk loud, are fully aware that they do. Can’t tell me otherwise LOL!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, and in all honesty, it’s been by design! I needed to take a mini break to get settled in my newest role…

FULL TIME ENTREPRENEUR.

Yes…as of April 1, 2013 (April Fool’s Day lol) I quit my job in “corporate America”. It came out of nowhere. Nope…I didn’t give two weeks notice; nope, I have not a single regret. I politely told my mgmt person this simple phrase: “I think I am going to have to make my last day here TODAY”. Imagine the look of shock on his face when I said that! I was confident in my decision, had already taken a peak at my financial situation, and decided that I had to act NOW. And I did!

I’ve been happy ever since.

Thing is, in order for me to truly get the weight off of my shoulder, I had to open the door of LEAVING that job. I was MISERABLE (I’m sure some of you have viewed past posts which made reference to my disdain for that place…), and I could not “find joy” in having to be there for seven hours and forty five minutes of my life, day in and day out, anymore. I thought about how much money I had been making there, and let out a sigh…the money was great, but not enough to keep me from being unhappy. I just know that I could no longer take the misery!

I left…and not 10 minutes after I was gone, I received two referrals to manage social media for their brands. For a while I had been working full time on BOTH–the corporate job and my career–and I was completely worn out. One had to go…and it was NOT going to be my PR Firm…

In order for me to receive the vision TOTALLY, I had to open that door of “the money is good at this job though”, walk ALL THE WAY out of it, and activate my faith. My spirit is free now. I may not be making the same amount of money that I was bringing home from the corporate job, but my clientele is picking up tremendously, and I have yet to be worried about making ends meet. I refuse to worry about what God has already done!

I challenge you to Open That Door. The door to working out, establishing your place in society, being open to love, mending a friendship, saving more money…whatever the “door” is for you, go ahead and open it. A huge part of your life’s work is to strengthen what already exists inside of you.

Be free to be who you are; my testimony is simply that I chose to Open That Door. Here’s a look at my door: http://www.prbyelle77.com

Per my blog #3 lol, I am very much in tune w who I am and what works for me. I am a “go against the grain” type of person anyways…so I’ve never been the type to copy/bite someone else’s style or ideas. Yes I share similar views w my friends and family, but I am VERY different in the way I think and approach things. I’m a Twitter fanatic; I tweet ALL day long and into the evening (part of it is business related; there is a method to my madness), and some of the things that I see on my timeline frequently prompted this blog note actually…I’m just wondering…when is “it” (whatever “it” may be) too much? I’ll tell you what I think.

Let’s go.

Welp…for starters let me throw out my disclaimer: If you are extra “churchy” or “super saved”, you may wanna bypass this next paragraph; how bout bypass this blog note itself. I’m not against religion/spirituality/etc., because God IS my All and All, however I’m bout to hit on the subject soooooo…you’ve been warned. You may proceed…oh and I do indeed make me up some words :O)!

At the end of the day, you can tweet or Instagram or FB about aaaaaaaaaaaaanything you want…that’s your social media page…but to be inundated w scripture, bashing others for sins (when you’ve neglected to pull that big dumb tree out of your own eye), saying what you will and won’t do, had it been you in someone else’s shoes? Too much. Are you aware that there is no sin on earth that weighs HEAVIER or LESS THAN another sin? Me even #THINKING that someone is ugly, and then hearing about Joe Blow murdering Jack Black on the news is weighed the EXACT same. To add, the eeeeeeeeeeeextra extra churchy ones are also (on MY timeline anyway) the ones seeking to be in a relationship most times…and BAD. I’m not saying hide God or your belief in Him from anyone; but have you ever thought about how your super-saint-ism attitude might appear (to a potential mate) to be somewhat judgmental? NO ONE will come to you perfect; people have different levels of relationship w God (some may not have one AT ALL, then what), and you may be scaring someone off w the way YOU COME off…believe it or not, you being super churchy doesn’t make you perfect. Please though…by all means, do you (blog #3); however just consider how you may sound. Just be honest w yourself. Yeeeeeeeaaah…it’s too much.

I love God on some for real face-in-the-floor-type-of-worshipping Him…in that, I get angry at Him sometimes–I’m honest w myself and Him. I have expressed to Him how I am so hurt and angry about the death of my Mom; I have days when I am a “sailor” (feel me); I get discouraged about things sometimes; I cry out of frustration; I hurt when people that I love have said or done something to offend me; so there is absolutely no way that I will deny my true feelings. God is good, most CERTAINLY. That will never change; I’m not trying to convince a person to believe anything different. I just know that I get beyond frustrated talking to a person who just cannot have a “conversation”. I don’t want to be hit w a scripture every single time I turn around; I just want to talk. For example, my Father is a Pastor. Extra churchy people (or otherwise people living in a world of stereotypes) might think that any conversation that I have w him would have some type of “bible study” attached. Nope. My Daddy is a “Dad”; he understands me as his #only Daughter (I’m a brat, sue me), and he knows my hurts. He accepts me completely–may not always be happy w the things that I do lol–but he wants nothing but the best for me. I can have a conversation w him and God doesn’t even come up. When we are talking about my hair (he asked about it this morning in our Starbucks) God didn’t come up in that conversation. When talking about the NATO summit, or what he wants to do for Father’s Day, not one mention of God. It doesn’t mean that he loves the Lord any less, but he ALSO knows that I, along w anyone else that he is having a conversation with, won’t have to be hit w scripture every second of every conversation. And HE’S a Pastor; he gets it. He is the perfect example of “just right” w that thing lbvs.

The naked avi pics…too much (yes this goes for guys too). Think more of yourselves than to think you are actually attracting the “guy or girl of your dreams” w that naked mess going on; even if you aren’t trying to attract the “one”, it’s still too much. Then you wanna get mad when you get the type of attention you get? What’d you just post to twitter though…too much. The discussion on whether same gender loving parties should be “allowed” to have the same freedoms that heterosexuals have…too much. I was having a conversation w one of my PHrat brothers JUST YESTERDAY about this same topic; when you meet your Maker, you will have your own sins to answer for; why are you concerned about what someone else is doing? I meeeeean and folks are MAD about it; chill out; it’s too much. The ballers who still live at home, though…too much. LOL of COURSE you can shop til you drop if you have no other responsibilities. Ballers truly “ball out” when they have their own…stop it; too much. I don’t know lol my timeline rocks though; but some people just do THEEEEE MOSTNESS (told yall I make up words), and every single person w a twitter/FB/Instagram/etc account has someone like that. Whether you say it or not, you’re thinking “now you are doing too much”. Ha!

We have so many other things to worry about…there is too much unemployment, too much hunger, too much poverty, too much murder, too much rivalry for no reason…too much. It’s never “too much” to help someone get a job, to feed a person, to educate a person/help someone get a trade so that they can have a better life, NEVER too much of that. I would rather someone say stuff like “she supports small businesses in her community too much”, or “he talks about ending violence too much”…that even sounds stupid to say, but don’t ever be surprised at how some people think. Again, tweet til your fingers fall off; because I most certainly will continue to get my tweet ON; I’m a writer; I will always have a lot to say. I guess I just want you to really think about what #you allow others to perceive about you when you dish out certain things, alongside of the whole “perception is reality” piece. I actually give a flip about people “making it” out here and getting their heart’s desires; don’t kill your character before you have the chance.